Snow Covers All
by Tler
Summary: Revised: The snow erased all evidence that a girl had ever climbed from a well, that a hanyou ever loved, and left the world and all its people to forget all that had been done, for love.


This is a little number I wrote to spite Valentine's Day all those years ago (2 or 3 to be exact ^^). I decided it was my best piece of writing out of every crappy thing I've ever written and thought I should revise this first. Inspired by a DVD cover for a Kenshin OVA, and if you know which I'm talking about...=)   
  
SNOW COVERS ALL   
  
~*~ I've never known pain until this moment  
  
I've never known torment till you were gone  
  
I've never known anger till the one who killed you,  
  
Stood over you and laughed at the blood  
  
All I have ever known before you, is loneliness. ~*~  
  
Inu-Yasha stood alone in the snow taken field, the white purity stained and corrupt with blood, blood of a most precious woman. His head was bowed over the girl he held close, pressing her lifeless body against his own, trying to catch the last scents of her, embedding it into his memory.   
  
Her face was smeared with blood, seeping from the numerous scrapes on her soft cheek. A thin trail of red ran from her lips, mixing into the congealing blood still oozing from a slash on her neck, running down her body, and soaking into her clothing. The brightness and life from her eyes were hidden forever, locked within her lashes, giving her the peacefulness of eternal sleep. Silky tendrils wove in front of her face, waving gently in the passing winter air, announcing the coldness of the season. However, Inu-Yasha shook not from the snow or wind.  
  
He cradled her limp body, his face twisted in anguish. Tears managed to seep from his tightly sealed eyes; eyes that didn't want to take in the sight before him, not wanting to take in the truth, and least of all, the pain. Vision blurred from the moisture, he stared brokenly at her placid face. Its peacefulness mocked him, not feeling the intense burn of desertion he was faced with.  
  
It was unlike anything he had ever felt, this searing agony that soaked his heart and choked his breath. The only thing that ever came close was the loss of his mother, but he was hardly old enough to feel the complete hopelessness he understood now. But for this death, this unspeakable, unimaginable death, he was old enough. This wasn't at all like what he felt when Kikyo had betrayed him, that was just heartbreak. A broken heart can be fixed, but this time, what was there to fix if everything important to him was taken away? His heart, his soul, all gone, drained away as Kagome bled away her life, leaving nothing for anyone to mend.   
  
He gazed at her face, all emotion but pain and utter loss disappearing like the blood trickling from her veins. Tears fell from his beaten face; empty of the usual pride and stubbornness. There was nothing to be proud of anymore, no one to be stubborn against. He just kept staring intently at the dead girl in his arms, looking for all the world like a helpless, desperate little boy, one who had lost his mother in the crowd.  
  
Part of him surveyed her still chest, void of breath, her lifeless limbs draped over his arms, her frightening deathly face, all with a sense of disbelief. That part of him couldn't cope with the undeniable; and didn't want to. He tried not to concentrate on the deep stillness of her dead body, and instead on the cold seeping in from the snow. He bitterly focused on the stiff wind that blew around the both of them, wrapping an icy sheet of snow over their shoulders, and on the intensity of the resonance coming from the wind in the trees. Yet the snow's coldness told of the frostiness in her veins, the blanket of winter air reminded him of death's shroud over her, and the shrieking of the wind echoed the emptiness in his heart, silently screaming from the destruction of his soul.   
  
He clutched Kagome's body tighter to him, not intending to ever let go. He slumped to the bloodstained snow, kneeling to the gods in defeat. He knew she was there, watching, waiting. He didn't move as he felt her presence get closer. Barely lifting his head, Inu-Yasha spoke tonelessly into the red snow.  
  
"You can come out. Kill me, Kikyo. Avenge your soul, and kill me."  
  
Kikyo stepped from the cover of the forest, bow and arrow ready. She lowered her weapon slightly as she came up from behind him, noting the shuddering of his shoulders, shaking from unknown reaches of pain. She was a little amused but mostly discontented, seeing how he didn't fear his death, or acknowledged her as the one to take it as her rightful claim.  
  
"You come willingly with me to your grave as I knew you would, Inu-Yasha. You belong with me, and now you will die with me, and come to hell by my side."  
  
She shot her prepared arrow with no further ritual, the long awaited moment finally commencing. He was going to die by her hand, at last bringing peace to her tortured soul.  
  
Inu-Yasha smiled just so slightly as he felt the sharp burning of the enchanted arrow piercing his back, into his heart. Turning his head slowly to face the darkened miko, his smile grew mocking. He rasped his parting words.  
  
"You fool. I will never die to be with you. My death may be yours, but my life, my soul, will always return, to Kagome."  
  
With the last of his life, he looked back to Kagome's tranquil expression. Had it not for the blood, she could have been sleeping and no one would know the difference. His lost look softened into a loving, peaceful expression much like her own. As his eyes closed for the last time, and the last rise of his chest fell, he descended with a heavy finality and smiled in peace, a peace he only felt with Kagome, and would feel for the last time.  
  
[[Kagome, I am following you. Let me find you, and be rid of this loneliness I've held for so long. I will always follow you, until you keep me forever.]]  
  
The silence of snowfall covered the area, the two bodies, innocent victims of love. It fell deftly over all the spilt blood, all the mournful tears, all the footsteps carried in vain. The whiteness blanketed what was left of an epic adventure, a tragic tale, and a love so profound it would never be repeated again. The world went on, as winter hid the horrific end in its icy purity, replacing old with new, the bloody truths with crystalline lies, until the field that holds so many secrets concealed yet another. The snow erased all evidence that a girl had ever climbed from a well, that a hanyou ever loved, and left the world and all its people to forget all that had been done, for love.  
  
~*~ This peace should never be felt,  
  
No matter how much one should want it  
  
This peace isn't deserved,  
  
By the ones who gave so much to love  
  
This peace isn't supposed to be a way out,  
  
It wasn't meant to be an escape  
  
This peace is a return  
  
and for me, a return to you~*~ 


End file.
